Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The community welfare officers will be guided by the existing legislation which provides that one can investigate the person concerned to ascertain if he or she is genuinely seeking work. If the person is not, he or she can be cut off benefit for a period of up to nine weeks. That in itself can be quite stringent. A social welfare officer can do that and the person concerned can then go to the community welfare officer. There is an anomaly in the system in that if one is cut off benefit by the social welfare officer, one can go to the community welfare officer and receive the same amount. That needs to be sorted out as well. By reducing this benefit to €150, it would mean that if a social welfare officer or facilitator, who has sought to get a person into employment or to take up a course, decides that the person is no longer genuinely seeking work and cuts off his or her benefit, that person can go to the community welfare officer and get the full amount of benefit. When we bring in the legislation the amount a person will be able to get anywhere will be €150. It is a safeguard to be able to reduce the benefit as well as being able to cut people off benefit.